I was a tycoon in World War I: Starting to save France

Chapter 1015 We underestimated the Charles

War House, London.

Prime Minister George took this war against France very seriously, even believing that the outcome of the war would determine the fate of Britain.

Win: They will outmaneuver France and successfully obtain reparations from Germany.

Lose: No, the Royal Navy cannot possibly lose!

Prime Minister George specifically converted the third-floor conference room into a combat command center.

The overall commander was Prime Minister George, but he was only the nominal commander, and he was only responsible for coordinating the work of various departments.

This war involves too many issues: naval warfare, air warfare, politics, and even the possibility of fighting several countries simultaneously.

The actual commander was the Minister of Munitions, who devised the plan and understood its essence best; it was most appropriate for him to take charge of the overall situation.

The deputy commanders were First Lord of the Navy Balfour and Rear Admiral Trenchard, one in charge of naval warfare and the other in charge of air warfare.

With the addition of over thirty staff officers and hundreds of communications soldiers, a truly luxurious command post was completed.

However, this command center did not actually play a significant role.

Rear Admiral Trenchard is an independent command structure; neither the Minister of Munitions nor the Minister of the Navy engages in air combat.

At that time, the Royal Navy was unaware of the close cooperation between the Navy and Naval Aviation. In their minds, an aircraft carrier was merely a platform for fighter jets to take off.

This is one of the reasons why the two British aircraft carriers, as the less important "First Fleet" and "Second Fleet," were positioned 50 kilometers behind the enemy lines.

The correct approach should be to center the warships around the aircraft carrier, with the primary task being to search for and sink enemy aircraft carriers.

If the fighting continues in this manner, the British Mediterranean Fleet will still have a fighting chance.

Although the British carrier-based aircraft "Camel" was no match for the French "Jenny A" and ultimately fell to the disadvantage.

But the British military couldn't possibly be so blind as to not even be able to see the French aircraft carrier.

Once the British knew the location of the French aircraft carrier, they could use high-speed surface ships to encircle and destroy it, thus putting pressure on the French aircraft carrier from both the sea and the air. In the end, the outcome was still unknown.

But this is not the case in actual combat.

The Minister of Munitions, the First Secretary of the Navy, and Rear Admiral Trenchard all had no concept of aircraft carrier operations, including General Winter, who was commanding on the front lines.

They assumed that France did not have an aircraft carrier, or even if it did, it would only be a carrier capable of launching a limited number of fighter jets, and thus posed little threat to heavily armored warships.

Therefore, they placed their aircraft carrier in a dangerous position: it was protected by only a dozen or so destroyers, sailing in a fixed sea area while waiting for the carrier-based aircraft to return.

Major General Trenchard did not see anything wrong with it.

At present, radios have not been installed on the aircraft. If the aircraft carrier's position changes too much, it may cause the carrier-based aircraft to be unable to find the carrier when they return, which would be a disaster for the carrier-based aircraft.

Therefore, the command cheered loudly when the carrier-based fighters achieved the first phase of victory.

"Well done!" Prime Minister George nodded to Major General Trenchard: "We have successfully driven away the French fighter planes."

"The important thing is to deter the French from launching their torpedo planes," the Minister of Munitions said. "The French know our strength; they know that once their torpedo planes take off, they will become our targets!"

“Yes,” Belfort agreed. “They ensured the safety of the battleships, which was very important.”

Major General Trenchard nodded slightly, giving the Quartermaster Minister a meaningful look with a smile on his face.

The greatest credit for this battle should go to the Minister of Munitions, who trained a group of pilots in advance to take off and land fighter jets on aircraft carriers. Without these pilots, this battle would never have been fought.

The Minister of Munitions responded with a smile, feigning magnanimity.

In fact, no one can take credit for this.

The Quartermaster had already made arrangements; after General Winter's resounding victory, he would naturally give the Quartermaster a prominent mention in his report.

Then, all the accolades such as magnanimity, humility, and foresight will be bestowed upon the Minister of Military Supplies.

The Minister of Munitions had a smile in his eyes, as if he could already see that moment coming.

But at that moment, the staff officer exclaimed: "Your Excellency, our aircraft carrier is under attack! It's enemy fighter jets!"

Prime Minister George abruptly turned his gaze to the Minister of Munitions: "Enemy fighter jets? That's impossible!"

This was said by the Minister of Munitions.

The aircraft carrier was more than 200 kilometers away from Malta, while the combat radius of French fighter jets was only about 150 kilometers, so it was impossible for them to attack the British aircraft carrier.

The Minister of Munitions was taken aback, then said in a deep voice, "If fighter jets attack our aircraft carrier, it is a French aircraft carrier."

Everyone immediately realized what was happening and gathered around the nautical chart to calculate the location of the French aircraft carrier using the telegram.

Everyone shared the same thought: Find it, and sink it!
However, before they could come up with a suitable solution, the staff officer reported in a pale and panicked voice: "Your Excellency, we... our aircraft carrier has been sunk, and all of its carrier-based aircraft have been shot down."

"What?" Prime Minister George looked up at his staff, his face filled with disbelief.

The others looked at each other.

That's impossible; there must be a communication problem or the decoder made a mistake.

"They were just attacked." Major General Trenchard glanced at his pocket watch, his tone calm. "It's only been a dozen minutes. How could two aircraft carriers have been sunk?"

The Minister of Munitions smiled confidently: "What did they use to sink our aircraft carrier? Machine guns?"

The others laughed out loud, as if they had heard a joke.

Only the staff officer holding the telegram had a deathly pale face. He handed the telegram to the Minister of Munitions: "No, Your Excellency, they used bombs. The ones attacking our aircraft carrier were not fighter jets, but bombers carrying bombs."

The laughter stopped abruptly, and everyone's eyes were filled with shock.

The French aircraft carrier could actually launch bombers?

The bomber they envisioned was the old-fashioned Caproni bomber with a wingspan of 22.2 meters and a length of 10.9 meters.

Such an aircraft cannot take off from an aircraft carrier.

Finally, after repeated questioning and verification, they understood the whole story:
The French developed a new type of bomber that was smaller, faster, and capable of high-speed dive bombing, with an accuracy more than ten times that of the Caproni bomber.

(Note: The Caproni bomber's error was generally around 300 meters, while the dive bomber's error was 30 meters. At the time, the HMS Argus was 20.7 meters wide and 172.2 meters long. If the dive bomber had bombed vertically, it would have had a high probability of hitting the target.)

A deathly silence fell over the command post; they realized they had underestimated Charles.

Major General Trenchard, in particular.

If all the fighter jets have been shot down by the enemy, the aircraft carrier will also be sunk.

This means that he, as the Chief of Staff of the Royal Flying Corps, has nothing left to do, and he no longer needs to stay in this command post!
(End of this chapter)